The City Council Monday held the first of a series of what are expected to be contentious hearings into the city’s slow response to last month’s blizzard. Comment.

BINGHAMTON — The fifth-place game was the last time Holy Cross would take the basketball court together in 2010. But instead of an end, it felt like a beginning. Comment.

Marquis Barnett set the tone early and it had nothing to do with putting the ball in the basket. Comment.

A man was killed last week while he was spending time at an Ozone Park barbershop that allegedly has shady after-hours operations, and the incident may be linked to another homicide several hours earlier less than a block away, a source claimed. Comment.

Andrew B. Marshall, a 57-year resident of Little Neck until March, died of natural causes Dec. 15. He was 94. Comment.

Arthur Kelley, a life-long Douglaston resident, died Dec. 6. He was in his 80s. Comment.

A fire in an Astoria house claimed the life of a 66-year-old pizzeria owner and injured two others Wednesday, police and the New York Fire Department said. Comment.

The response to the Dec. 26 snowstorm that crippled the Long Island Rail Road and outraged public officials went according to plan, according to a spokesman for the LIRR. Comment.

Former Richmond Hill legislator Anthony Seminerio, 75, died Thursday while serving the first year of a six-year prison sentence, Edmond Ross, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Prisons has confirmed. Comment.

FAR ROCKAWAY — A man and woman were arrested last week after a violent fight in their apartment, the Queens district attorney’s office said. Comment.

QUEENS VILLAGE — Police have asked for help in the search for a missing teen. Comment.

A party promoter and father of three from Jamaica was the city’s first homicide victim of the new year in what his family called a senseless slaying. Comment.

The murder of a Jamaica man who was shot on his way to a New Year’s Eve party capped off a violent year in southeast Queens. Comment.

Sometimes the truth is embarrassing. Last Thursday afternoon, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that by Thursday morning every street in the city would be plowed at least once. That was 72 hours after the snow stopped falling and completely unacceptable. Comment.

Most Queens residents were cursing the ice left over by the holiday blizzard, but some in Middle Village paid money last week to step on the frozen surface made by Kevin McCabe. Comment.

Murders in the 110th Police Precinct dropped to four last year from six in 2009, continuing a downward trend that has been in effect since 1990, according to crime statistics compiled by the Police Department. Comment.

New York City legislators and advocates are calling on the state to implement a law so all chain-store pharmacies across the state will need to provide language services to help consumers understand their medications. The state law would be modeled on a city law passed in 2009 that took effect in June. Comment.

A political action committee tied to U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica), who has been the target of a federal investigation since the beginning of 2010, spent six times as much on legal fees compared to 2009, according to Federal Election Commission documents. Comment.

The streets of Glen Oaks Village had not been plowed by the time the co-op’s president, Bob Friedrich, attended outgoing state Sen. Frank Padavan’s (R-Bellerose) farewell party Dec. 29 — the Wednesday following the blizzard. Comment.

Fresh Meadows residents past and current who are feeling nostalgic have something to look forward to: a book chronicling the Queens neighborhood due out in the fall. Comment.

A Rego Park soup kitchen expected Abby Hofstetter to start a lemonade stand or bake cookies to help raise money. Instead, they got more than $10,000 from the pre-teen philanthropist. Comment.

Major crime dropped slightly in Forest Hills and Rego Park last year, according to crime statistics compiled by the 112th Precinct. Comment.

When Little Neck resident Elana Mugdan graduated from college in 2009 and returned to New York to follow her dreams of being a filmmaker, things did not begin so well. Comment.

Selina Wong, the first child of Ting Li and Richard Wong, was also the first baby born in Queens in 2011. Comment.

Major crime fell 5.7 percent in the 109th Precinct last year, the 19th largest drop in crime in all 76 city precincts, with major crimes like robbery and grand larceny experiencing double-digit plunges, according to unofficial year-end figures. Comment.

More than 80 hours after the snow stopped falling in last week’s blizzard, many streets in northeast Queens had not been plowed. This powerful storm was not the worst the city has ever seen, but the response to this emergency may be the worst. Comment.

There is one place in Queens where you can always catch the No. 7 train: on the arm of 22-year-old Adil “Mef” Ali. Comment.

Community Board 11 voted unanimously to oppose a proposal to clear the way for an empty Bayside lot to be developed after a series of area homeowners testified against the plan at a Monday night meeting. Comment.

The Long Island Rail Road has accompanied its 2011 fare increases with an array of new conditions and restrictions on everything from when tickets expire to refund policy. Comment.

The city’s inadequate response to last week’s snowstorm left Queens hospitals facing incredible hardships as ambulances throughout the borough had to be towed while trying to cover medical emergencies and human chains were formed to get vital supplies into Flushing Hospital. Comment.

Part I Comment.

When Forest Hills was hit with mountains of snow Dec. 26, a local volunteer organization was patrolling the neighborhood as police, firefighters and medical personnel were facing overwhelming demand and long delays. Comment.

Students at the Divine Wisdom Catholic Academy in Douglaston dedicated much of their holiday season to collecting money and supplies for impoverished Haitian students, hundreds of whom will be able to go to school, thanks to the Queens children. Comment.

Bay Terrace Community Alliance President Warren Schreiber officially brought the neighborhood’s proposal to switch community boards before Community Board 11 for the first time Monday night, calling himself “the troublemaker” for pushing the controversial plan. Comment.

Administrators at a Flushing high school that specializes in truant teens worked to promote their academic strategies to the new city schools chancellor as she spent her first day on the job visiting the institution Monday. Comment.

An employee of a Flushing bakery died during this week’s blizzard, authorities said. Comment.

ASTORIA — Police from the 114th Precinct recently arrested a third suspect and fourth in the May 2010 slaying of Stefan Middleton. Comment.

JACKSON HEIGHTS — A teenager was arrested last week for allegedly trying to rob a deli, the Queens district attorney’s office said. Comment.

LONG ISLAND CITY — Fire erupted at a building in Long Island City on Christmas Eve, a representative from Butler Associates said. Comment.

LONG ISLAND CITY — After a 16-year-old girl sought out a school guidance counselor, police arrested and charged a 58-year-old teacher at Aviation Career & Technical High School in Long Island City with sexually abusing the teen, the Queens district attorney’s office said Monday. Comment.

We keep hearing the same sing-song from the advocates of extending the 2001 Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. They claim repealing it would not only hinder job growth, but lead to further economic distress. Comment.

Here is a comment from me on the city’s failed effort at snow removal in eastern Queens. Glen Oaks Village, New York’s largest garden apartment co-op and home to 10,000 New Yorkers, saw no city Sanitation Department plows in our community a full day after the snowstorm. Comment.

As the area continues to dig out from the massive blizzard, to add insult to injury for thousands of mass transit riders and commuters who must drive into the city to work, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s fare hikes went into effect last Thursday. Comment.

All eyes were focused at the end of 2010 on the Baysider who ran the agency that allowed the city to be swindled out of $80 million. Joel Bondy, executive director of the city Office of Payroll Administration, was suspended last month without pay. A few days later he announced his resignation effective Dec. 31. So far he has not been charged with any crime by federal prosecutors. Comment.

On Dec. 8, Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a speech before the City Council. He sounded more like a possible independent candidate for president than a mayor reviewing his administration’s efforts during the previous year. Comment.

Despite the dire predictions that it would be impossible to pull off a successful party for outgoing state Sen. Frank Padavan on such short notice during the holiday season, with all of its many demands on everyone’s time, money and participation in traditional events, we did it. In fact, it exceeded our expectations. Everyone was thrilled to be part of the Padavan tribute. Comment.

The recession has been a death knell for many businesses old and new, but the same is not true for Marc Pine, the owner of vintage shop Instant Replay on Austin Street in Forest Hills. Comment.

The year in Queens was bookended by natural disasters — an earthquake in Haiti whose tremors were felt throughout the borough and a late December blizzard that crippled Queens and the rest of the city — with a tornado and its aftermath lingering for days in the summer. Comment.

Michael Halberian, the latest person to own the historic Steinway Mansion on 41st Street and 18th Avenue in Astoria, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease during last week’s snowstorm, City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) said. He was 83. Comment.

Kacper Nieczyslaw Kozlowski will never have a dull birthday party for the rest of his life. Comment.

As piles of black garbage bags joined the dwindling snow piles left from the Christmas weekend blizzard, the mayor and other officials promised to find out what caused the serious delays in street plowing in Queens as well as the possibility of deliberate sabotage by city workers. Comment.

At the urging of Dutch Kills activists, Community Board 1 recommended that the city Board of Standards and Appeals deny a Manhattan developer a certificate of occupancy for his nearly complete hotel on 39th Avenue last month, but the action left the developer undeterred. Comment.

Rabbi Jonathan Pearl and his wife Judy Pearl know a lot about movies and Jewish people, but when they came to the Astoria Center of Israel to revitalize the waning synagogue three years ago, they never suspected their latest home had a silver screen credit. Comment.

Like all neighborhoods in Queens, Corona and Elmhurst were hit hard by the snowstorm, but during the last week the high piles of snow and icy roads led to situations that were not just an inconvenience but deadly. Comment.

The NYPD’s 114th Precinct had a spike in the number of murders last year, with nine people killed, but the number of crimes overall still recorded a slight drop as of Dec. 26, according to crime statistics. Comment.

The Queens Museum of Art is running an exhibition of the works of Luis Márquez, showcasing historic photographs and memorabilia from the New York World’s Fair that took place in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Comment.